I think Reader friends have already noticed, my “palace series” is going on. So, here I am taking you to New Schloss Schleißheim, in suburban Munich, an absolute hidden gem in Bavaria. As you have already seen Lustheim Palace, you know it is a Schloss complex with three palaces and New Schloss is the main palace.

From the end of the park

I entered from the garden side, which is actually the back of the palace. If you are coming from Munich, take suburban S1 train to Oberschleissheim. From the station take BUS 292 towards Garching , and get down at Mittenheimer Straße. Then you can reach the front gate in 2 minutes.

But I don’t regret entering backside. The garden is beautiful with colourful flowers, carpeted by green grass , trees changing from deep green to colors of autumn ! The water from the spring spilling over to a pond in front of the palace with duckings playing on it. The whole campus had hardly 20 people- few walkers and rest of them came as a group. I was walking along the waterbody, then it started pouring. I ran into the new palace. The cloudy sky affected the light for photography, but the experience was awesome.

Early autumn in the garden

I got my combined ticket in Lustheim palace, so I entered the new palace, shown them the ticket. Each palace you visit , they stamp on your ticket 🙂 Then I went to the cloak room, put my bag and all and started my palace tour. The story of this palace began with the dreamer Elector Max Emanuel.

Elector Emanuel was hoping to become the next emperor, so he had the New Palace built as his future residence. He planned a four winged complex , two massive wings joining the new place with the old and pavilions. But, man proposes ,God disposes. Elector was forced to exile as a result of Spanish war of succession, and the building of the palace came to a halt prematurely.

Not until 1715, when the elector came back after the exile, the work of the palace resumed. He was out of money, so design of the palace had to be simplified. Only the main structure remained, and the connecting wings with the old palace were never made. But, Emanuel had a great sense of art, he engaged french trained Joseph Effner to supervise the sumptuous interior. The dream of Thorne was long gone, so was the money. But still there was to be no lack of splendour at Schleißheim.

Max Emanuel died in 1726, and his son Karl took his place. He resumed the unfinished part of the rooms and the missing fixtures such as marble fireplaces, wall coverings, panelling and flooring were only gradually installed. Max III Joseph, elector’s grandson and the last elector of the Old Bavarian line of the House of Wittelsbach, maintained the legacy.

With the art collection begun by Elector Max Emanuel, Schleißheim New Palace was a place of interest of the artists and art lovers worldwide. The tradition is continued by the State Gallery of European Baroque Art, part of the Bavarian State Collection of Paintings.

Council Room

The ceiling paintings remain the main features of the interior. The Bavarian artist Cosmas Damian Asam, painted the first frescoes in the dome above the staircase and the vault in the Maximilian Chapel. Then came, the Italian Jacopo Amigoni, who did the massive task of painting all the ceilings in the two main apartments and the ceilings of the two halls on the first floor, the Large Hall and the Victory Hall.